So, what’s the argument for cloud computing?

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:48:23 +0000

A plot of the Evolution of Computer Capacity and Costs shows that compute power will be 1,000X cheaper in 10 years. How much lower can it go? As this happens the relative cost of managing another computer goes asymptotic to zero, regardless of whether its hosted internally or externally. I don’t think there is an economic argument that shows everyone belongs on the cloud based just on hardware and system administration cost.

Dave Dooling at PolITiGenomics finds two good reasons for considering cloud options: when organizations have peak demands for compute power and when limitations on space/power/cooling preclude building a system in-house. These are two good reasons, but hardly enough to justify all the cloud computing hype.

Unlike computing which gets cheaper every year, people cost more every year. So, it makes sense to evaluate the annual software development and maintenance costs, the cost of managing the reference databases; integrating and maintaining new applications, the productivity of the end-users and how to change the ratio of end-user-to-support-programmer from 2-to-1 to 10-to-1 or 20-to-1. Cloud computing defined as “Infrastructure” (computers, networks, and storage) doesn’t alleviate these costs.

What are you best at?

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:19:10 +0000

Recently I met with a genomics executive at a Biotech who expressed frustration that by appearances, NGS software vendors appear similar. I agree with his assessment if you just look at the web sites. Customers can play a role in helping the vendor community communicate (and compete) better by asking this simple question: “What are you best at?” Why? Because everybody appreciates and accepts that you cannot “be all things to all people” and it therefore forces choice, on the part of the vendor and the customer.

At this stage, vendors are probably best at 1 or 2 things, like SDM, LIMS, client side visualization, or assembly. I’m skeptical that any vendor in the field is really best at ALL the needs for an NGS infrastructure, including GenomeQuest.

For customers, asking the question forces a different consideration: “what key requirement is necessary for us to solve FIRST?” This brings clarity to the trial activity and helps the vendors prioritize and communicate better the value of their offerings, instead of trying to solve all the customer problems for which they may not be most well suited.

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So, what’s the argument for cloud computing?

What are you best at?